Philippine militants free Indonesian hostage

MANILA: Islamic militants in the Philippines on Thursday freed an Indonesian sailor abducted at sea, days after the gunmen released a Norwegian captive and three other Indonesians, the military said.
The Abu Sayyaf turned over Herman Manggak, 30, to another group of Muslim gunmen who later handed him over to the authorities, a military statement said.
Manggak was snatched off a boat at gunpoint in the Sulu Sea close to the Malaysian border with the Philippines where numerous Indonesian and Malaysian seafarers have been abducted by the group in recent months.
He was held for 50 days on the Philippine island of Jolo, a stronghold of the kidnappers who earlier Thursday turned him over to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) group.
The terms of his release were not disclosed, though the Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia had said the gunmen initially demanded RM10,000 for him after freeing two other crew members.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding five other Indonesian citizens, the Philippine military said.
On Saturday the group released Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad after a year in captivity.
Three Indonesian hostages were also released last weekend, but the militants beheaded two hostages, both Canadian tourists, earlier this year, after failing to collect a ransom.
The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of a militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network that has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings-for-ransom.
While its leaders have in recent years pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, analysts say the group is mainly focused on a lucrative kidnapping business rather than religious ideology.
The Norwegian and the four Indonesians were released to a splinter group that broke away from the MNLF after it signed a peace treaty with the Philippine government in 1996. — AFP